Black Dog Salvage opening residence house in Roanoke for visitors

Enter social media contest to help name home

ROANOKE, Va.Black Dog Salvage is considered a destination spot for many people in North America but it hopes to attract even more people to the Star City with its latest project.

A stone house that sits directly next to the store was in bad condition for years, and now you can be part of its makeover.

People come from all over the world to visit the Black Dog Salvage store. Now, the store is giving people another reason to visit and stay in town for a while. 

The old stone house next door is part of the store's plan. 

"As part of the real estate, this old stone house (that) was in a worse shape than it is now came along with it. And we've struggled for the last 15 years for the best re-use of the house," Robert Kulp said. 

The house was used for several years for the TV show, "Salvage Dawgs" as a studio. Kulp says the home deserves more public use.

"It's a guest house and it will be available to rent for weeks at a time for all our visitors that come to Black Dog Salvage or those who come to visit Roanoke," he said. 

Preserving the history is important. Kulp says the house was built by an immigrant stone manson, Michael Grosso, in 1906.

"He raised, like, 12 kids in this house and he did it with reused parts," Kulp said. 

Black Dog Salvage is running a contest on social media, asking people to help give the house a name. So far, thousands of suggestions have been made in comments on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

"We got a lot of thinking to do," Kulp said.  

They store hopes to have a name within a week. 

Construction of the home will be featured on parts of the TV show. The home should be open for use by the spring.